Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 13, 1993 TAG: 9311130033
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LEIGH ALLEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When NBC weatherman Willard Scott told millions of viewers Friday morning he thought the Shenandoah Valley was the prettiest spot in the country, he wasn't kidding.
"Oh, now, don't you say that about every place you visit?" challenged one of his fans gathered at the Salem Civic Center, where Scott was broadcasting the weather for NBC's "Today" show.
"I say it a lot, but I really mean it when I'm here," Scott said.
Scott recently bought a 200-acre farm at the foot of the Alleghany Mountains in Rockbridge County, north of Lexington. The secluded spot will soon be his family's primary vacation hideaway when life in New York gets too rough.
The main house on the property burned some years ago, but Scott says the 1,200-square-foot cottage at the edge of a small, spring-fed brook has all the room he and his wife need. Scott's having the cottage restored along with two springhouses and a barn, all of which date to about 1910, he said.
Scott's travels take him to such garden spots as De La Croix, La., for the annual crawfish festival, and Mankato, Minn., for the Minnesota Walleye Tournament. But he said he has dreamed of owning a cottage here since he first visited Western Virginia in the late 1940s.
"My wife and I have vacationed at the Homestead for years, and we'd always look around for a nice place to own," he said. "It took a while to find one that was just right."
Scott said he jumped at the chance to broadcast Friday from the Roanoke Valley Junior League's Stocked Market at the Salem Civic Center because it gave him a good excuse to visit his new farm.
"And these people in the Roanoke Valley are some of the greatest in the world, too," he added, with the knack for flattery that's made him famous.
"Today" producers followed Scott around the holiday gift market with several empty shopping bags to accomodate the avalanche of brownies, T-shirts, flowers and homemade preserves heaped onto him by fans. He loved it all.
"This stuff is wonderful, and it's all for a good cause," he said while admiring a hand-painted mailbox for sale at the market. "That's what makes this place special."
In its fifth year, the Stocked Market is the Junior League's largest annual fund-raiser. More than 10,000 people visited the event last year, with proceeds from ticket sales going to community service programs in the Roanoke Valley.
Holiday crafts were the most popular items at the market Friday morning as most of the shoppers seemed to be gearing up for the Christmas season. But the most popular attraction in the Civic Center was the man wishing his trademark "happy birthdays" to 100-year-old fans across the country.
"You're so nice to come down here and visit us," one elderly shopper said as she pressed her way in front of a throng of autograph seekers and picture takers.
"The pleasure is all mine, my darling. These are the nicest people in the world, the prettiest place in the country. I mean that."
Memo: ***CORRECTION***